Can My Landlord Make Me Get Rid of My Emotional Support Dog, or Are They Crying Wolf?

If your landlord doesn’t share your enthusiasm for your four-legged roommate, you may wonder, “Can my landlord make me get rid of my emotional support dog?”

It’s a stressful question to deal with, which defeats the purpose of having an ESA in the first place. While federal law does provide you with protections, it may not stop your landlord from hounding you about your dog’s breed, size, or other things they don’t like about your furry friend. But do they have a leg to stand on?

To put your mind at ease, we’ll explore when a landlord can evict your dog, when they can’t, and what potential exceptions you should know about.

Can a Landlord Evict Your Emotional Support Dog?

No, your landlord can’t evict your emotional support dog. Your dog is protected by the Fair Housing Act (FHA), a federal law that ensures people with disabilities can keep assistance animals in housing. Once you’ve presented your landlord with a valid ESA letter, they can’t forbid you from bringing your dog to live with you or demand that you get rid of them.

And the protections go even further. An ESA letter prevents your landlord from making you pay a pet deposit, adding pet rent, or capping the number of animals you have. According to the FHA, ESAs aren’t pets, meaning those rules don’t apply to them. This also means that your four-legged friend can enter common housing areas where pets may not be allowed, like:

• Lobbies and hallways
• Community rooms and resident lounges
• Laundry facilities
• Outdoor spaces like courtyards and walking paths
• Elevators and stairwells
• Parking areas
• Mailrooms

But while this is the case with apartment buildings and similar setups, it doesn’t apply to all housing. The FHA doesn’t cover owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, single-family homes rented without an agent, and buildings operated by religious organizations, meaning your ESA dog won’t enjoy the same protections in these spaces.

When Your Landlord Can’t Evict Your Dog

Even if your landlord isn’t too happy you have a furry roommate, the FHA prevents them from demanding you part ways without a good reason. For example, your landlord can’t ask you to get rid of your dog just because:

• Your dog is a breed they don’t like: Breed restrictions don’t apply to your little helper. If your landlord claims that their insurance may increase their premium due to your ESA, they have a ruff path ahead of them. Claims like this need to be confirmed, which is risky business since it may result in a discrimination investigation

• Your dog exceeds the landlord’s size or weight limits: Whether you’ve got a chihuahua or a malamute, it has every right to stay with you as long as you’ve got the paperwork to prove your dog’s helping you

• Your landlord doesn’t like having animals in their rental: Your landlord’s personal opinions don’t override federal law. They have to ensure reasonable accommodation for you and your fuzzy buddy, even if they just dislike dogs (as if that can happen)

• Other tenants aren’t fans of animals: Your neighbors have the right to enjoy their home as much as you do. However, this doesn’t mean they can demand that your dog gets shown the door just because they prefer cats

Reasons Your Dog May Have To Move Out

Although your ESA letter does provide your fuzzy friend with greater rights than a pet, that doesn’t mean they’re completely immune to eviction. The FHA also outlines situations when your landlord can justifiably ask you to rehome your dog or leave, such as: 

1. Potential danger to others
2. Ongoing disruptions
3. Property damage
4. A bad ESA letter

Potential Danger to Others

Your neighbors and their pets have a right to feel safe. If your dog regularly growls or tries to lunge at other tenants and their pets, you may have a problem on your hands. And your pal doesn’t necessarily need to attack anyone; the landlord just needs to prove it’s a credible threat.

Things can also get tricky when allergies get involved. Even if your ESA wouldn’t hurt a fly, their presence might endanger other tenants’ health, which creates grounds for a possible eviction. The decision for these situations depends on individual details, such as who lived in the unit first (like in Cohen v. Clark) and what the landlord can do for both of you.

Unfortunately, if there’s no way to accommodate you both, you may be in the doghouse. If your landlord can prove that your ESA is dangerous or incompatible with other tenants despite good-faith efforts, they may have the right to request that you rehome your dog.

Ongoing Disruptions

A disruption doesn’t mean your dog barking every now and then because it’s seen a bird or gets excited. To qualify for a noise complaint, your buddy would have to be barking, howling, or making noise in any other way for long enough to be disruptive, especially during quiet hours.

However, getting a noise complaint doesn’t automatically mean you have to pack your dog’s chew toys and send them on their way. Your landlord should speak to you to try to find a common solution before they move on to more drastic actions, like making you get rid of your fuzzy friend.

For example, if the noise complaints come from a single neighbor, your landlord may try to help you both by having one of you move units if possible, which would be an attempt at reasonable accommodation. If the landlord skips this step and starts pushing to evict you off the bat, you may be able to file a complaint with HUD (the enforcing authority for the FHA). 

Property Damage

This is one of the most common causes for evicting an ESA dog. Even the best-behaved good boys (and girls!) may occasionally chew on something they shouldn’t, scratch up a door, or have an accident inside. If this is a once-in-a-blue-moon occasion, you may be in the clear, as long as you can reach an agreement with your landlord.

However, if your dog is a connoisseur of fine furniture and likes to dine regularly, you may have a problem on your hands. The same goes for:

• Digging at carpets or floors
• Damaging walls
• Chewing on building remotes and installations
• Tracking mud in common areas

While these don’t necessarily have to result in an immediate eviction request, your landlord may bill you for the damages.

If property damage becomes an ongoing issue and your landlord can prove that it’s costing them a lot of money, they can request that you have your fluffy roommate find a new place to live.

A Bad ESA Letter

Getting a real letter requires an evaluation from a licensed mental health professional (LMHP), which takes both time and expertise. If a website offers a letter for free or asks you to pay peanuts to get one near instantly, what you’re getting is an auto-generated template with no mental health evaluation, which won’t hold up with landlords. 

To make sure that your ESA letter is the real deal, check if it:

1. Is written by an LMHP
2. Comes on an official letterhead with the LMHP’s information
3. Recognizes that you have a qualifying mental health condition according to the DSM-5-TR
4. Explicitly states your full name
5. Explains that your ESA is part of your treatment, and possibly lists some of the ways it helps

On top of not getting you any protections, a fake ESA letter can get you in trouble in several ways:

Luckily, you can avoid housing and legal trouble by making sure your documentation is compliant with the FHA. And while the process can be stressful, you can make it quick and easy by finding a reliable online service that checks all the boxes—like Your Service Animal.

Get an ESA Letter Landlords Can’t Refuse With Your Service Animal

Your Service Animal makes getting a legitimate ESA letter quick, easy, and stress-free with a simple qualification, evaluation, and delivery process. You check if you qualify, get connected for a consultation with a licensed professional, and receive your letter in just a couple of days.

Here’s what puts the platform ahead of the pack:

The Steps Towards Your ESA Letter

Getting your ESA letter with Your Service Animal is a simple, four-step process:

1. Find out if you’re a good fit for an ESA letter with our online quiz
2. Schedule an online appointment with a licensed mental health practitioner in your state
3. Attend the online call and receive your ESA letter if clinically appropriate
4. Receive a full refund if the therapist doesn’t issue an ESA letter or your landlord rejects your letter